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Sunday, 24 November 2013

DIVERGENT in Total Film Magazine: Better Quality Still + Chat With Shailene Woodley & Theo James

DIVERGENT is featured in Total Film magazine, which includes this behind the scenes still in better quality than we saw before, & a brief chat with stars Shailene and Theo:
"Total film is crouching in the dark in Cinescape studios in
Chicago watching Shailene Woodley and Brit Theo James get crushed in a
shrinking aluminum box. As the walls close in, the duo’s limbs entwine and
they breathlessly scrabble to brace the suffocating space.We know how they feel. Its muggy and airless
in the former steel works building thanks to the gathering storm (a tornado is
predicted to hit the windy city imminently) and tensions are high on set of
what could be the nest Hunger Games. Not least because that incoming weather is
cutting shooting time short today and the box (the sides pushed together in a
lo-tech fashion by beefy gaffers) isn’t behaving perfectly, but also because
director Neil Burger and his leads need to nail the right mix of sex and danger
to make this inaugural film take off with audiences – and lay the way for a
planned three-film franchise.

Based on the YA bestseller by Veronica Roth, Divergent is
set 150 years in the apocalyptic future, where people are divided into factions
according to their personality traits. But what if 16 year old Tris (Woodley)
had the traits of all the factions and was ‘divergent’? That would make her
dangerous to the governing body led by duplicitous Jeanine (Winslet), who rules
by a ruthless method of divide and conquer..

As beloved by fans as Twilight or The Hunger Games,
Divergent boasts plenty of bone-crunching combat, fear challenges (that box
being one to overcome the horror of small spaces) and dystopian war and death,
but crucially, theres something extra here that neither Stephenie Meyer nor
Suzanne Collins offered in their stories; proper, tangible lust and sexual
charge. James’ Four is no swoony, blueballed vamp or district friend who
doesn’t make a move – he’s sexy, sensual, and the tension between him and
Woodley’s kickass Tris should crackle.

“I feel sweaty and sexy,” James purrs, keeping his American
accent between takes as he joins TF to contemplate the scene the duo have just
filmed. Sitting close to his co-star, finishing her sentences and constantly
complimenting her, the chemistry seems to be apparent both on and off-screen.
So… Total Film ventures gooseberry-like, is this new world hotter than The
Hunger Games?

“I think it’s sexy because its relatable,” smiles Woodley
before quickly turning the conversation back to the action, “I mean, obviously
its an exaggerated dystopian future..” Well indeed. And one that Burger
insisted was filmed on location in Chicago, just as the book detailed. Which
meant Woodley and James filmed scenes on the city’s famous Navy Pier Ferris
Wheel, on the over-head trains, and within sight of the Willis Tower – all dressed
to look distressed, ruined and worn.

“The vibe is this industrial feel,” says James. “There’s
that essence that peppers the whole film.” Yeah, that and the sexual tension….

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